Round 9 Feature Match: Desmond Johnson vs Paul Clarke

The Karakuri King is back with us again! This time he is taking on the SeriousTreebornFrog, Paul Clarke!

Game 1

Desmond will be starting off the duel after winning the dice roll. He played Upstart Goblin from his starting hand of Sacred Sword of Seven Stars, Gold Sarcophagus, Solemn Warning, Dragunity Dux and Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders. After drawing into Book of Moon and giving Paul 1000 life points, Desmond banished Redox to activate his Sacred Sword which let him draw into Cards of Consonance and Dragunity Phalanx and then add another Redox to his hand. Cards of Consonance then hit the field, discarding Phalanx to draw into another Sacred Sword and Mystical Space Typhoon. He continued his play by summoning Dragunity Dux to the field and activating its effect,

"How far can I go?" he asked Paul, both of them very well aware of the combo that Desmond was going to do
"Go for it." Paul replied, unable to stop the play

Dux then equipped itself with the Phalanx from grave. The Phalanx used its effect to special summon itself to the field, allowing Desmond to syncro summon Dragunity Knight Vajrayana. Vajrayana's effect equipped itself with Phalanx, which then special summoned itself again. Desmond activated his in hand Gold Sarcophagus and banished a Tempest from his deck, which let him add a Dragunity Arma Mysteltainn from his deck to his hand. He then tributed the Phalanx to special summon the Mysteltainn from his hand, which re-equipped and special summoned Phalanx. Desmond then overlaid the Vajrayana and Mysteltainn to XYZ summon Hieratic Dragon King of Atum. He used Atum's effect to special summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon from his deck to his field. Red-Eyes effect special summoned Mysteltainn back to the field so he could tune it with Phalanx for Stardust Dragon. He then set MST, Book of Moon and Solemn Warning to end his long winded first turn.

Paul started off by playing Dragon Shrine, sending Flamvell Guard and Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms from his deck to his grave.

"What is that?" Desmond remarked, before reading the card. "Why am I not playing that?!" he exclaimed after reading through its effect. Both players laughed before Paul continued with Sacred Sword, banishing Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls to draw 2 cards and add another Tidal to his hand. He then banished his Flamvell Guard and Tempest from his grave to special summon a Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos from his hand, adding another Tempest to his hand as well. He then normal summoned a second Flamvell Guard and debated for a moment before attacking over Red-Eyes with Flamvell Guard and then attempting to attack Stardust with Blaster. Desmond used his Book of Moon to shut down the Blaster and keep Paul from running over his dragon. Paul then set one card and tried to end his turn, but Desmond blew away Paul's Return from the Different Dimension in the end phase with his MST!

Desmond drew and then played Terraforming to search for Dragon Ravine. He played another Sacred Sword, banishing Redox again to draw into another Terraforming and MST and added his last Redox to his hand. He then activated Dragon Ravine and discarded Redox to add another Dragunity Dux to his hand. He summoned Dux and brought back Phalanx in attack position. He attacked over Blaster with Stardust, attacked Guard with Dux for 1800 damage and then attacked with Phalanx for 500 damage directly before setting MST and ending his turn.

(Paul 5700, Desmond 8000)

Paul drew for his turn then discarded Dragunity Corsesca and Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms to add a Redox to his hand with Tempest's effect. He then banished Corsesca and Maxx "C" to special summon Redox in defense mode before normal summoning Debris Dragon, targeting Flamvell guard with its effect. Desmond let the play go through, but the duel was interrupted as a rogue cricket leapt from the playing field into Desmond's hair! After many a "manly" scream, the duel resumed with Paul syncro summoning Crimson Blader which Desmond stopped with Solemn Warning. Paul then banished Tidal and Crimson Blader to special summon Blaster from his grave and syncro summoned Star Eater! Paul's godly dragon then entered battle with Desmond's King Atum and attacked for 800 damage. Paul set 1 card again, but it was deja vu as Desmond blew away Vanity's Emptiness with his set MST.

Paul drew for his turn then discarded Corsesca and Tempest to add Redox to hand with Tempest’s effect. He then banished Corsesca and Maxx “C” to special summon Redox in defense mode before summoning Debris Dragon targeting Flamvell Guard with it’s effect. Desmond let the play go through only to be attacked by rogue cricket and screaming like a little girl. Paul then syncro summoned Crimson Blader and then was met by Solemn Warning. Paul then banished Tidal and Crimson Blader to special summon Blaster and syncro for Star Eater and attack over Atum for 800 damage. He set 1 but it was ALSO blown away by an end phase MST

Desmond drew Upstart Goblin and then syncro’d into Vajrayana and then into Scrap Dragon then simply explained his plan for going for game and Paul conceded defeat, eager for a comeback in game 2

Game 2

After siding, Paul started the duel by drawing to 6 cards then set 4 of them to his back row before he passed to Desmond.

Desmond drew for his turn before playing Sacred Sword and banishing Redox to draw into Divine Wrath and Phalanx, as well as adding another Redox to his hand. He set 5 cards and passed back to Paul.

Paul drew and passed.

Desmond Drew Tempest and discarded Tempest and Phalanx but Paul responded with Debunk to shut the play down. Desmond Passed.

Paul drew and passed.

Desmond drew Reckless Greed and blind MSTd Paul’s second Debunk to free up some space to set Reckless and pass back to Paul.

Paul drew and played Sacred Sword banishing Tempest to draw 2 and add Dragunity Corsesca which he discarded for Cards of Consonance to draw 2 more cards before passing his turn.

Desmond drew Blaster, activated Reckless Greed and drew 2 cards (Tempest and another Blaster). He banished Redox and Tempest to Special summon Blaster from his hand, adding another Tempest and Redox as well. He then attacked for 2800 damage before passing.

(Paul 5200, Desmond 8000)

Paul drew and then banished Corsesca and maxx c to special summon redox in defense position and then normal summoned Flamvell guard and syncro’d into Stardust Dragon. He then set one more and passed back to Desmond. Desmond activated Book of Moon at the end of Paul’s Main phase to set his Blaster down, keeping it from returning to his hand.

Desmond could not draw due to Reckless so he just flipped up his Blaster and went to attack Stardust, but Paul chained MST to Desmond’s backrow in an attempt to save his Stardust by tributing it to negate the MST, but Desmond chained his Compulsory evacuation device and targeted Stardust Dragon before the Dragon could use its effect, but Paul had another MST that he activated to target another facedown of Desmond's, which stardust was able to negate! Blaster then attacked for 2800 directly.

(Paul 2400, Desmond 8000)

Paul drew and began his turn by banishing Redox and Tempets to summon Blaster and add a Redox and Corsesca to his hand. He then summoned Corsesca to syncro summon Colossal Fighter and crashed with Blaster. When Collosal Fighter activated its effect to special summon itself, Desmond activated Divine Wrath, discarding Redox to negate the effect. Stardust attacked directly for 2500.

(Paul 2400, Desmond 5500)

Desmond could not draw again due to Reckless so he started his turn by banishing Blaster and Tempest to attempt to summon Blaster from his grave but Paul chained DD Crow to banish the Blaster before the summon could complete. Desmond then banished Tempest and the newly added Phalanx to special summon Redox in Defense before ending his turn.

Paul drew and used Sacred Sword to banish Redox to draw 2 and add his last Redox to his hand. He then played Dragon Ravine and discarded Redox for its effect to send Tidal to grave. He then banished Blaster and Corsesca to summon Tidal and then normal’d flamvell to syncro into Scrap Dragon. Desmond Warning’d the Scrap Dragon then Paul passed turn.

Desmond drew and used Seven Star Sword to draw into terraforming and MST before conceding defeat without a play to make.

Game 3

This game was played with 2 minutes before time was called, so the players needed to play quickly.

Desmond will kick off game 3 of this match by using Sacred Sword to banish Blaster and draw 2 cards and add another Blaster to hand. He activated Dragon Ravine and discarded Phalanx to add Dux to his hand. He summoned Dux and used it to bring back Phalanx and syncro into Vajrayana. He then syncro summoned into Colossal Fighter after bringing back Phalanx with Vajrayana's effect. Desmond set MST, 2 copies of Divine Wrath and Reckless Greed before passing to Paul.

Time Was called going into this turn

Paul drew then activated Sacred Sword to draw 2 cards and add another Blaster to his hand. Paul activated Dark Hole to get rid of Colossal Fighter. He set 2 cards and passed back to Desmond, but a set MST would blow away Paul's Bottomless before Desmond began his turn.

Desmond drew another Sacred Sword and used it to banish a Blaster to draw into another MST and Tempest, adding another Blaster to his hand.He discarded his Blaster to activate Dragon Ravine and added Dux to his hand to try and start the whole process over again. Dux targeted Phalanx but Paul had a D.D. Crow to chain and tried banishing Phalanx before it could be equipped. Desmond used his Divine Wrath, discarding Tempest to shut down the D.D. Crow. Desmond then syncro summoned Vajrayana and tried to equip Phalanx again. Paul responded with a second D.D. Crow only to be shut down by another Divine Wrath!

"Ok, it was unlikely that I had 2 Crows, but it was even more unlikely that you had 2 Divine Wraths!" Paul joked before using Raigeki Break to shut down Vajrayana before Phalanx could get be special summoned. Desmond used Reckless Greed to draw two cards before banishing 2 Dragunity Dux for Tempest and passing.

Paul drew and then banished Flamvell Guard and another dragon for Tidal. He attacked over the Tempest for 200 Damage and passed turn.

Desmond then banished 2 dragons for Blaster and added another Blaster and revealed Seven Star Sword and Paul conceded defeat.

An unlikely double Divine Warth dominates the Game 3 of this round, sealing the victory for Desmond! He will end the day at 12th place and secure his seat in the top 16!

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